**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins

I am here to bring you the Gospel that is D'Angelo Russell.
We're at 5 games out of 7 where DLo provided a stretch that either provided a win, changed the complexion of the game, prevent the other team from going on a run.

Grizzles Series
Game 1: 3rd quarter. DLo scored or assisted on 11 straight points to weather a Ja 3 point barrage. Could have easily been the spot where the Lakers lost all control and go down 1-0. AR and Rui carried the 4th.
Game 4: Down 97-90 with 5:13 left. DLo gets 3 big time 3's. 9-0 run changed the complexion of the game.
Game 5: Scored or assisted on the first 15 points for the Lakers to start the 3rd, then Ham inexplicably takes him out with 6 minutes left in the quarter. Then it continues to fall apart when he takes AD out.
Game 6: All game he had it going 31 points.

Warriors series:
Game 1: Scored or assisted on first 10 points of the Second Half. Also a big layup at 1:24 in the 4th to regain the lead after the Lakers completely died and didn't score for 4 and a half minutes.



It may not always be pretty, but he's at 17/5.85 on .442/.354. Basically what he gave in his time after the trade. There is a decrease in efficiency. Amounts to 2- 2Ps and 2-3s worse total in the 7 playoff games.
 
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G2 we'll be making many 3s
 
BRONBROW2020 said:
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lakeshow G2 will be making many 3s
Click to expand...

That % from the Warriors is about where they are at average wise for the season from 3.

It's weird to say, but it's the right strategy. Pack the midrange. Let them take the 3.
Protect the glass on the defensive, and contest all the other shots, all the Lakers need to do on offense is be their season average, get to the basket and force fouls.

Warriors will for once be on the wrong side of the math game.
 
essential1 said:
That % from the Warriors is about where they are at average wise for the season from 3.

It's weird to say, but it's the right strategy. Pack the midrange. Let them take the 3.
Protect the glass on the defensive, and contest all the other shots, all the Lakers need to do on offense is be their season average, get to the basket and force fouls.

Warriors will for once be on the wrong side of the math game.
Click to expand...

Thats a really decent percentage from 3. It isnt why they lost.
 
Let them shoot 3s. Its less contact for AD. I truly believe they will try to attack AD to get him in foul trouble next game.
 
deusavertat said:
Thats a really decent percentage from 3. It isnt why they lost.
Click to expand...

It is a decent part of it.

You’re right it is a good percentage. It’s about 1% better than their average.

But here’s why the Warriors shooting 1/2 their shots from 3 is why they lost, even at a good percentage.
Lakers packed the midrange and paint and forced them to settle for 1 three every 54 seconds.
Taking higher percentage shots (at the rim and FTs) completed out of the game and contested the 2 pointers well.

Lakers doubled the Warriors in paint points and 5x them from FT points

If Lakers execute the game they normally do with a high FG% mainly on getting clean looks at the hoop, get to the line a lot and make a good percentage of them whilst limiting the opposite for the Warriors, GS will struggle to build leads even when it feels like they are shooting lights out.
 
Swear the only Laker team I've ever seen that played well against a zone defense was the 2020 team. Pls be prepared for more zone moving forward.

 
essential1 said:
That % from the Warriors is about where they are at average wise for the season from 3.

It's weird to say, but it's the right strategy. Pack the midrange. Let them take the 3.
Protect the glass on the defensive, and contest all the other shots, all the Lakers need to do on offense is be their season average, get to the basket and force fouls.

Warriors will for once be on the wrong side of the math game.
Click to expand...
Lol no

Run them off the line and funnel to the packed paint.

Not “let them take the 3”
 
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Did Ham call a timeout during that Warriors run?

That was a weird stretch. Vando on the bench. Lakers taking terrible shots. All you need in those moments is 2-4 points.

AD has to rest at times. Playing him entire halves doesn’t work. He’s not built to play long stretches. He was so out of gas by the end of the game.
 
The way AD is camping in the paint is just gonna allow for Steph and Klay to shoot 12+ threes a game each. Just gotta fight the math from there.
 
DLF said:
Lol no

Run them off the line and funnel to the packed paint.

Not “let them take the 3”
Click to expand...

They are not going to. They will take the 3.

It’s not even a double edged sword. It’s a win-win.
If they try to go inside, it’ll be contested. Which is why I say pack the midrange and take out the 2 highest percentage shots of the game (at rim and FTs). Playing drop coverage is what forced a lot of this.

If they take the 3, so be it. It’s not letting wide open 3s, it’s living with the strategy that long run too many GSW 3s is worse than LA going at the hoop and taking FTs. Which is exactly what happened last night.
 
pmatic said:
As always, AD will be the key. The guards will run the shooters off the three point line, so it'll be up to AD (and to lesser extent Bron) to shut down the paint.

Vando will get a shot at Curry first. Reaves will guard Klay and D'Lo will guard Wiggins. I could see Schroder being inserted into the starting lineup if Vando isn't up to it.

AD and Bron should be able to get downhill. Looney and Draymond won't give be easy though.

Warriors love turning the ball over, so there should be opportunities for transition baskets.

Warriors also love fouling their opponents and don't get to the line much, so be prepared to hear the Internet whine about a big disparity in free throws.

This is another series where Ham will probably be okay with going small because the Warriors don't play anyone above 6'9. :lol: :smh:
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Warriors did a good job taking care of the ball, but a turnover fest is incoming. Nice to see Ham give Wenyen first half minutes, now please give him some second half minutes so AD has gas to end the game.
 
Y’all noticed everyone we took a stupid 3, the dubs would run and get a 3 on the other end. Multiple “6point turnaround” moments.


To get AD rest we should have short spurt of Rui/lebron/Vando lineup and sandwich looney for boards. No way we should let ad play entire half. He’s not built like that. I have a feeling Ham wanted game 1 real bad and for game 2 he will go back to not playing desperation ball and let him rest a little
 
pmatic said:
I think the last time AD played the entire second (home game vs Celtics) he got hurt the next game vs the Nuggets and was out five weeks.
Click to expand...
At least he was just parked at the 3 point line all second half so that should hopefully help lol


Gotta use Rui more than 11 mins. I refuse to believe we can’t use him when Payton II, Looney, jamychal, and Draymond are their front court
 


Lakers-Warriors contrasting styles sets stage for myriad of adjustments

Well that was fun. Now … let the adjustments begin.

Game 1s are the most interesting game of any series, by far. Not only do they set the narrative of the next six (we hope!) games, but they also dictate the terms of engagement. Matchups, rotations, tactics … all those balls start accelerating downhill once Game 1 is in the books and both sides have had time to chew over the tape.

The greater the stylistic incongruity between the two sides, the more all those considerations are magnified. And man, did we have some incongruity in Game 1. The Warriors launched 53 3-pointers despite the Lakers top-locking their guards in an effort to prevent such outbursts, while the Lakers converted only 6 of their 25 attempts. Nonetheless, even in this modern pace-and-space era of 2023, it was the Lakers who cave-manned their way to a 117-112 victory via domination of the paint and a gargantuan free-throw advantage.

So prominent were the matchup considerations, even at this early stage, that the Warriors felt compelled to play one player who had scored zero points in the previous series … and then later were equally compelled to pull a guy off the court in crunch time who had 20 rebounds through three quarters. Both gambits worked! Meanwhile, the Lakers felt compelled to respond by taking their best Steph Curry defender off the floor at the most important point of the game … and that mostly worked, too.

It almost goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: If you’re hungry for tactical food for thought, this game presented an entire banquet. I’ll walk you through the entire menu in a minute, but first, let’s take a step backward.

Coming in, this looked like a fairly evenly matched series between two teams that finished one game apart in the final standings. Both had elite superstar talent, both had closed the year stronger than they had started and for each advantage on one side, you could come up with a corresponding plus for the other.

To wit, the Lakers won the season series 3-1, but there were key players missing in most of those games, and the Warriors had home-court advantage. The Lakers’ lack of shooting loomed as a huge negative against the Warriors’ shrewd defenders, but L.A.’s domination of the free-throw game (+5.8 per game) stood as a major advantage against the Warrior’s league-worst performance in this category (-5.0 per game).

In fact, you will basically never see a head-to-head matchup in one category in a playoff series quite this one-sided. The Lakers were first in free-throw attempts, and the Warriors were last. The Lakers also permitted the fewest opponent free-throw attempts, while the Warriors were 25th.

Predictably, the Lakers dominated in this area, even more than you might have anticipated: they finished with a 29-6 free-throw-attempt advantage. The foul disparity had locals at Chase Center chanting the usual thing fans chant when they think the officials should consider alternate employment options, but this differential was baked in from the opening tip.

Meanwhile, the Warriors took nearly a thousand more 3-point attempts than the Lakers this season; they led the NBA in attempts while the Lakers were 26th and were second in accuracy while the Lakers were 24th. So it also shouldn’t be terribly shocking that Golden State tried more than twice as many – 53 to the Lakers’ 25 – nor that they converted 21 to the Lakers’ six. It was the first time the Warriors had ever lost while making 15 more 3s than their opponent.

That’s what the numbers said, but there was also the story the eyes told. The Lakers’ challenge would be to keep their best Curry defender (Jarred Vanderbilt) on the floor when he couldn’t shoot and their best shooter (D’Angelo Russell) on the floor when he couldn’t defend. Conversely, the Warriors’ battle was to manufacture paint points and room for their shooting while playing two non-threatening bigs at the same time.

And man, did all those things play out in the opener. The Warriors shot just as well on their 3-point bombs (39.6 percent) as they did on their paint attempts (40 percent); not only did they fail to draw fouls on their forays inside, but also Anthony Davis obliterated most of their chances to get easy points around the rim. He blocked four shots and altered countless more.

Vanderbilt was awesome defensively on Curry but left unguarded in the corners offensively. As the Warriors began a 14-0 run that momentarily tied the game in the fourth, Darvin Ham switched him out for Russell, who eventually made the go-ahead basket on an improvised post-up against Andrew Wiggins. (Don’t worry, the Warriors still won the trade … but that shot was huge.)

And that run? It was the product of a Warriors shift to a smaller lineup that replaced Kevon Looney with Jordan Poole. Looney was monstrously effective, with 23 rebounds on the night, but the Warriors just couldn’t get Davis out of the paint. For three quarters they barely tried, only really daring to attack Davis directly in the fourth quarter once they went small. Only in the fourth, when they played one big with four perimeter players, did they succeed.

That led to perhaps the most interesting gambit of the night: the Lakers’ decision to keep Davis in the game the entire second half. He ended up playing 44 minutes, while LeBron James played 40, leading one to wonder whether the Lakers might have won the battle but lost the war. There will be no extra days of rest in this best-of-seven series, meaning the Lakers need to be careful in how hard they push the minutes of their dominant but brittle stars. With a road win in the bag, don’t be shocked if L.A. throttles down their playing time in Game 2.

Of course, all minutes are not created equal, and one can argue that for three quarters both Davis and James were having an easy night. While Vanderbilt, Dennis Schröder and Austin Reaves chased the Warriors’ guards all over Mission Bay, the Warriors treated Davis like quarterbacks treated Deion Sanders in the 1990s, rarely even daring to throw in his direction.

Here’s a typical play from the first half, where Davis is, um, “guarding” Kevon Looney.


He just sits in the paint playing tag with various Warriors, knowing that each time he touches one he can stand in the paint for three more seconds without incurring a defensive 3-second violation, if such a thing were to be called in a playoff game at all. Not exactly a taxing defensive trip for him.

Here’s another clip that requires a bit more movement from Davis, but you can see the Warriors’ dilemma: Davis is able to hang out in the paint with Draymond Green but still take one step over to block Curry’s floater.


The Warriors scored when the ball deflected to Green, but that play was indicative of the trouble they had in the paint all evening. One can understand their reluctance to put Davis in action, even if it meant neutralizing their own Curry-Green pick-and-roll game (Also: Check out James guarding Gary Payton II. Again, not a lot of wear and tear on those minutes.)

The other half of the Warriors’ effort to deal with Davis was the surprise insertion of JaMychal Green into the rotation, a move that allowed them to match L.A.’s size without sacrificing floor-spacing. He hadn’t made a 3-pointer since March 24, but knocked in two in the first half as Davis sagged off of him in his seven-minute run.

“JaMychal gives us some size on the front lines, some rebounding and he can hit the 3,” said Steve Kerr. “He knocked down a couple 3s for us, which is one way to loosen up their defense a little bit.

“I felt like coming in, we needed another big in this series and that we weren’t just going to play Draymond and Loon.”

Nonetheless, the more interesting part of the tactical games in this series may come when the Lakers have the ball. While it’s relatively easy to see what adjustments the Warriors might be able to make to wrangle a few more points, the logic is a bit harder to conjure from L.A.’s side.

To wit: They aren’t very good from outside, and especially aren’t very good with James mired in a shooting slump that has seen him make just nine of his last 49 3-point attempts. The Lakers’ theoretical best shooter, Malik Beasley, was DNP’d in this one, largely because the Lakers were terrified of his Swiss cheese defense against Golden State’s explosive guards.

Meanwhile, the Warriors still gave the impression they thought they were playing the Kings at times, unnecessarily hugging up on perimeter players in some situations, and one wonders if they may get more daring as the series wears on.

“You go from guarding pick-and-roll all series, and it’s a quick turnaround” said Draymond Green of the Warriors, who were 48 hours removed from grinding out a Game 7 win in Sacramento. “We’ll figure it out.”

Certainly, the film will show opportunities for tactical improvement. Check out Wiggins here, for instance, hugging up on James 40 feet from the hoop rather than sagging off, going under and living with him shooting jump shots. James gets all the way to the rim instead, converting a driving layup that easily could have been an and-1.


Even with that, the Warriors will live with a lot of the Lakers shots that went in on Tuesday. The Lakers might have only shot 6 of 25 from 3, but they connected on 10 of their 20 non-paint 2s, and most of those were pretty heavily contested.

“I think when you start the series, you really have to go through a game to really feel it and watch the tape and figure out what possible adjustments,” Kerr said. “Davis made a lot of midrange shots … those are shots that we have to be willing to give up, because if we can keep them from the rim, and they are taking some challenged two-point shots, I think those are shots you’ve got to live with.”

As the series goes on, the Warriors are likely to find more Laker shots they can live with. Will they sprinkle in more zones, and maybe even some junk defenses like box-and-one? When that happens, can Ham find enough shooters — Russell or Rui Hachimura, or even Beasley — to keep Golden State honest and open the paint back up for Davis?

Ultimately, it feels like the determining factor in this series will be what happens when the Lakers are on offense. Yes, the Warriors probably have to play smaller and faster to open up their offense, with only one big on the floor, and that could leave them more vulnerable to the Lakers’ paint play and foul-drawing.

On the other hand, the Warriors seem to have a highly potent adjustment available to them by just going under screens, sinking back in the paint and daring L.A. to beat them from the 3-point line. That is, if they can deal with Davis, and the transition, and all the free throws and …

You get it. The LeBron vs. Steph stuff is fun and all, but the really compelling theater here is the chess match presented by the contrasting styles. The Lakers claimed Game 1 on Tuesday, but it feels like checkmate is a long way away. This one will go back and forth for most of the next two weeks, as Kerr and Ham exchange adjustments and counter-adjustments.

I can’t wait to see how it plays out.
 
DLo 4 assists to AD. 1 to Bron. 1 to TBJ.
Game winner at 1:24 left in the 4th. That’s a big bucket with the Lakers not having scored for 4 and a half minutes prior.

Just gotta hit the 3 bunnies he had and it’s as close to a flawless game as possible. 2 layups where he basically got himself all ****** up timing wise and blew an open layup. And the open 3 late that he wasn’t remotely close on.

He had Curry in hell to start that 3rd.

 
Outside of burning AD in the 4th and him being gassed to finish on offense because he didn’t get any rest.

That was Shaq level play

 
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